Method of making metal fabric.



W. LOACH.

METHOD OF MAKING METAL FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 2. I915.

1,189,369; Patented July 4,1916.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 1- Patented July 4, 1916.

SHEETSSHEET 2.

W. LOACH OF MAKING METAL FABRIC. CATION FILED NOV. 2, 1915.

METHOD APPLI IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I W. LOACH.

METHOD OF MAKING METAL FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 2, 1915.

Patented July 4, 1916.

' 5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

W. LOACH. METHOD OF MAKING METAL FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 2, 1915. 2 r 1,189,369. Patented July 4, 1916.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

VOVOVOVOV gwo 9 gllgml it "Milli A; m I:

lllllll WILLIAM LOACH, 0F

OSHA'WA, ONTARIO, CANADA, ASSIGNOB TO THE LIMITED, 0]? OSHAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA. I

H mn'rnon or MAKINGMETALFABRIG.

Specification of Letters Patent. I

Application filed November 2, 1915. Serial No. 59,311. v 1

To all whomz't may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM LoAoH,"a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of Oshawa, in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, have invented a certain new and useful Method of Making Metal Fabric, of which the following is. the

specification.

This lnventlon relates to an improved method of making metal fabric, and the objects of the invention are to. enable metal fabric having expanded portions with connecting strips of an improved character to t with unsht or plain portions 10 and slit be turned out rapidly and at low cost.

Further objects are to strengthen unexpanded connecting strips to prevent break ing of the strands at the point where the expanded portion connects with the unex panded portion andto provide for shortening of the unexpanded section to compensate with the expanded section.

According to the present lnventlon the unexpanded portions are shortened simul taneously with the expanding ofthe other portions and in a further operation the unexpanded portions are strengthened by upsetting corrugations formed therein.

Further features and objects of the invention will appear as the specification pro; ceeds. A

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine for performing the principal operation of the method. Fig. 2 is a front view of the same partially in section. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail through a pair of dies used to finish the product. Fig. 4 is t a front elevation of a set of dies for forming the ribs in the product. Fig.5 is a front elevation of -the first set of rollers. Fig. 6 is a sectional detail through the feeding rolls. Fig. 7 is a sectional detail of the feeding rolls. Fig. 8 is a plan view of the metal blank after it has received the first slitting operation. Fig. 9 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 8. Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the product after the first step in the ex pan'sion. Fig. 11 is a plan view of thepro'dnot after it has expanded and has the first 13 is a sectional view through" the final produ t- In the drawings like characters of refer ence indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The process uses as raw material strips of IPEDLAYR PEOPLE Patented uly 4, 1916.

sheet metal of any desired and convenient gage, such as at present used for the manu- It will be seen that the strip A is formed rated rollers having their peripheries radially separated.

The process may be carried out, if desired, in an, organized machine or might be performed by hand. I prefer to employ machinery in the performance of the proc-' ess and in the accompanying drawings have illustrated machinery invented byme by the use of which the same may be performed. The said machine is not claimed in this application, but isclaimed in the division thereof.

The machine comprises a plurality of pairs of rotary dies B, C, D, E and F mounted on shafts 12 and 13. The shaft 13 is j ournaled in suitable bearings in the side frames G and H while the shaft 12 is journaled in suitable sliding bearings 15 which are adapted to be adjusted in position by adjusting screws 16 whereby the .shaft 12 with the dies thereon may be adjusted to and fromthe shaft 13.

The dies are laterally separated from each other as indicated and one of the dies of-each pair is free on the shaft; thus for instance in the pair of dies B the die 17 is connected to and rotates with the shaft'12 while the die 18 is loose on the shaft 13. In

. F .the die 26 will rotate with the shaft lQ while the die 27 is free on the shaft 13.

The shafts 12 and 13 are rotated by convenient means. As shown, a gear 28 on the shaft 13 is adapted to mesh with a pinion 29 on a counter shaft 30 journaled in the frame and carrying a gear 31 meshing with a pinion 32 on a counter shaft 33 which carries a driving pulley -34.

. The dies are formed with intermeshing teeth adapted to form corrugations of a convenient size in the plain portions of the strips. The strip to be expanded is fed to the rotary dies from between a set of feeding rollers H situated adistance in advance of the dies and midway between them. This set of feeding rollers includes lower rollers 35 mounted on the shaft 36 and upper adjustable rollers 37 each of said adjustable rollers being supported in a suitable yoke 39 which'is adjustably connected to a cross bar 40 by means of a bolt 41 ex.- tending through a slot 42 and also by means of adjusting screws 43 extending through the top of the yoke into the cross bar.

The rotary dies are laterally separated a distance which ,corresponds -to the plain portions 10 in the strips.

As the peripheries of adjacent rollers are separated from each other in a radial di rection it will be seen that the portion 11 of the strips willbe expanded between them to assume the formation shown in Fig. 10. At the same time corrugations will be formed in the plain portions 10 which will shorten said plain portions to correspond with the lengthwise shortening which takes place in the expanded portions as they are expanded.

The next operation is the'formation of longitudinal ribs in the corrugated portions which is accomplished by passing the strip through cooperating dies L and M mounted on shafts N and 0. These dies are of the form shown in Fig. 4 and are adapted to form longitudinal ribs in the corruated portion which will serve to strengthen t e same. These corrugations may be increased in successive sets of dies Q, R and S, T'and may be finally caused to produce the product shown in Figs. 11 and 12. To finally finish the product, the ribs 40 appearing in the product shown in Figs. 11 and 12-are adapted to be closed somewhat and to have the corrugations pressed out to a certain extent which will upset the material to increase the thickness of and strengthen the unexpanded portion. This is most conveniently accomplished in a hydraulic press by the use of dies such as shown in Fig. 3, the upper die 41" having. a

tongue 42 adapted to enter the lower die I 43, which lower die is formed with pivoted corrugations.

down against the tongue when the die 41 moves downwardly.

In practice the die 41 will be connected to the movable part of a hydraulic press and strips of the product of convenient length, say sixteen feet, will be placed in position in it and the die operated toclose the rib 40 and at the same time upset the The product just described has many advantages, in particular the simultaneous shortening and expansion avoids any'undue strain in the various parts of the product and the final upsetting of the corrugations gives increased strength to the non-expanded portion, and in fact may be caused to increase the gage of the metal in the unexpanded portion.

- It will be observed that the operation of the dies draws the unslitted port-ions away from each other in a direction diagonal to the original plane of the sheet and while drawing them apart maintains them in substantial parallel relation to each other. By

reference to Fig. 6 itwill be seen that alternate sections of unslitted metal are carried away from each other on opposite sides of the plane of the sheet.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of my inven- .tion, ithin the scope of the claims, constructed without departing from the spirit or scope thereof, it is intended that all mat ter contained in the accompanying specification and drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense;

What I claim as my invention is;

- 1. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which comprises simultaneously expanding one portion of the fabric laterally while shortening another laterally ad acent portion of the fabric longitudinally.

2. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which. comprises slitting longitudinal strips of the same, then simultaneously expanding the 'slitted portions laterally while shortening the unslitted portion longitudinally.

portions of the fabric longitudinally and v then flattenin the corrugations.

5. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which comprises exslitting strips panding portions of the fabric and then increasing the thiclmess' of the unexpanded portions.

6. The facturing metal fabric which comprises ex panding portions of the fabric and increasing the thickness of the unexpanded portions by corrugating and upsetting the metal thereof.

7. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which comprises of the same leaving .unslit portions between and then passing the slit strips between sets of rotary dies separated 1,5 laterally and having their peripheries separated radially whereby the fabric is expanded in a diagonal direction between adjacent dies.

8. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which comprises first forming longitudinal slitted portions in a strip of sheet metal, then simultaneously expanding the slitted portions while corru gating the unslit portions and then forming ribs in the corrugated portions.

9. The herein described method of manufacturing metal fabric which comprises first forming longitudinal slitted portions in a strip of sheet metal, then simultaneously.

herein described method of manuwhile maintaining them in substantially parallel relation.

11. The process of expanding a sheet of metal having slitted and unslitted portions which comprises drawing the unslitted parts i as a whole away from each other into difier -ent planes in a direction diagonal to the plane of the original sheet.

12. The process of expanding a sheet of metal having slitted and unslitted portions which consists in carrying alternate sections of unslitted metal as a whole away from each other into different planes on opposite sides of the plane of the sheet.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twowitnesses.

WILLIAM LOACH.

Witnesses:

MARIE PIRIE, W. E. N. SmoLAm. 

